Andrew Lansley must make two big changes to the shape of his health reforms to quieten critics and save his job and today’s cross-party, eminently sensible Health Select Committee report provides a sensible basis for compromise on both.
The report recommends radically changing the composition of the GP consortia, to be renamed “NHS Commissioning Authorities”, as well as suggesting that these bodies have the final say in who treats patients, rather than the market regulator.
Liberal Democrats will say that the proposals do not go quite far enough, while Labour will warn that after a massive upheaval, the NHS will still look largely the same as when they left power.
Yet senior figures from both opposition parties agreed yesterday that they represented a positive step forward from the current plan.
The question is whether Mr Lansley can be persuaded to take their medicine.
Advertisement
The “pause” button, pressed yesterday, will now be lifted in mid-June, two weeks later than previously expected.
Whether the Health Secretary has the stomach for proper compromise before then, or will attempt to push his original plans once the reforms slip out of the spotlight, remains to be seen.